Boris Johnson news- live: PM diverts attention to ‘illegal migrants’ as he faces ‘three more Partygate fines’

Actor Dan Stevens shocked viewers by responding to a question about his latest work by launching a savage attack on Boris Johnson, branding the prime minister a “criminal” who should resign after he was fined for breaking his own Covid laws.

Opening the interview this evening, presenter Alex Jones quickly surmised the programme’s plot before introducing “our lovely Dan here”.

Asking him to explain how Gaslit varied from the many dramatisations of Watergate, Ms Jones said: “The series you’re doing, what’s the take on it?”

“Well, what you’ve got is a criminal for a leader, who is wrapped up in a messy war, embroiled in a stupid scandal and surrounded by ambitious idiots, and really should resign,” Mr Stevens, 39, said.

He then paused and pretended to look confused before continuing: “No, I’m sorry that’s the intro to Boris Johnson. I’ve just said the intro to Boris Johnson, I’m so sorry.”

MPs are calling for a cut in welfare support waiting times for legal immigrant children who are living in poverty.

MPs are calling for a reduction in safety net waiting times and have suggested that parents with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) should be given access to the welfare system after a maximum of five years.

They are also calling for an extension of free childcare entitlement and Child Benefit payments for children who are British citizens.

News of the government scheme to fly down asylum seekers crossing the English Channel to Rwanda has drawn derision from the Opposition as well as refugee advocates, including the Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, who told BBC News it would not work.

“I really worry that this is not the right way to treat asylum seekers. We have an international duty under the Refugee Convention to look after asylum seekers well. They are big issues. They’ve got to be tackled and I don’t think this is the way to do it,” he said.

“I remain to be convinced that it’s going to be deterrent in any way.”

UK based advocacy group Detention Action said that the men sent to Rwanda would “likely face indefinite detention under a government notorious for violent persecution of dissent”.

It added: “At the same time, the UK currently gives asylum to Rwandan refugees fleeing political persecution.”

British Red Cross executive director Zoe Abrams said the humanitarian network was “profoundly concerned” about the plans to “send traumatised people halfway round the world to Rwanda”.

“We are not convinced this drastic measure will deter desperate people from attempting to cross the Channel either. People come here for reasons we can all understand, like wanting to be reunited with loved ones, or because they speak the language. Making it harsher may do little to stop them risking their lives.”

Enver Solomon, of the Refugee Council, described the government’s plans to process asylum requests after sending them offshores in Rwanda as “cruel and nasty” and said it would do little to deter people from coming to the UK, only leading to “more human suffering and chaos”.

Describing the government decision to offshore the asylum seekers in Rwanda as “unworkable, unethical and extortionate”, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper warned that it would cost the UK taxpayer billions of pounds during a cost of living crisis and would make it “harder, not easier” to get fast and fair asylum decisions.

She slammed the announcement as a “desperate and shameful” attempt by Mr Johnson to “distract from his own law-breaking” and from the “collapse” of the Home Office’s decision-making on asylum claims, which sees thousands waiting for more than a year for a decision.

Ministers have for the first time signed a deal to send asylum seekers arriving in the UK to another country to have their cases processed, in a move experts warn will encourage people traffickers.

Boris Johnson is set to announce an agreement with Rwanda that will see migrants “offshored” more than 4,000 miles away to the landlocked African country while they wait for an asylum decision from the Home Office.

It is understood that the Rwandan government will be paid an initial cost of £120m under the deal, which will be funded by the British taxpayer.

The prime minister is expected to set out the plans in a speech on Thursday morning, stating:“Our compassion may be infinite, but our capacity to help people is not.

“The British people voted several times to control our borders – not to close them, but to control them. So just as Brexit allowed us to take back control of legal immigration by replacing free movement with our points-based system, we are also taking back control of illegal immigration, with a long-term plan for asylum in this country.”

Our social affairs correspondent May Bulman reports.

Boris Johnson faces three more police fines for breaching Covid lockdown rules, according to media reports.

He is set to be penalised for attending a leaving party for his former director of communications, Lee Cain, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The event on 13 November “is considered to be the most serious breach of the coronavirus regulations among the events that the prime minister attended,” an unnamed source close to the investigation told the newspaper.

While Mr Johnson was fined by police police for attending his birthday party during lockdown, insiders say the event for which the PM has been punished is seen as less serious than others yet to be fully investigated.

Those include a May 2020 summer party, a gathering in November in Mr Johnson’s flat with his wife on the day of Dominic Cummings’ departure, and the leaving event Mr Cain.

Read the details in this report by Eleanor Sly.

At first glance, it seems Boris Johnson might survive this latest revelation in the long-running Partygate scandal.

The few Tory MPs who withdrew their letters to the backbench committee calling for Johnson to quit are not changing their mind.

Andrew Bridgen, for example, has repeated his belief that the war in Ukraine means this is not the moment.

The UK’s deputy prime minister, Dominic Raab, has commented on the resignation of the justice minister.

He thanked David Wolfson”for his remarkable work in improving families’ access to mediation, reforming our human rights laws and curtailing the abuse of our libel laws by kleptocrats.”

Mr Raab went on to add: “His wisdom & intellect will be sorely missed in govt.”

See the full tweet below:

Actor Dan Stevens shocked viewers by responding to a question about his latest work by launching a savage attack on Boris Johnson, branding the prime minister a “criminal” who shold resign after he was fined for breaking his own Covid laws.

The Downton Abbey star appeared on the BBC’s The One Show to discuss Gaslit, a new US drama series – about the Watergate scandal – which he stars in opposite Hollywood giants Julia Roberts and Sean Penn.

Focusing on some of the lesser-told stories that brought Richard Nixon’s criminality to light, the limited series, produced by Universal, predominantly centres on Nixon’s infamously loyal attorney general John Mitchell and his wife, Martha, who became a whistleblower.